Emily Linghun
Emily Linghun is a junior at Lake Ontario High and classmate of several former TDI contestants in LIFE AS AN EX-REALITY TV SHOW CONTESTANT. Apparently a longtime friend of Heather, she comes across as distant and brooding but is actually painfully shy, her dark outer façade belying a free-spirited artistic soul who longs to distance herself from Heather. Personality A silent follower of Heather, Emily comes across as dark, distant and potentially quite brooding – none of which is true. In reality, Emily is a friendly, free-spirited but cripplingly shy individual, who has relied on Heather for “protection” from the horrors of high school social life for quite some time. Underneath her dark eyes and follower nature, Emily loves art, Japanese manga and anime, fantasy stories, animals and stargazing – all interests she pretends not to have under the orders of Heather, who believes Emily’s passions would make her an outcast. Instead, she feigns interest and support in Heather’s ruling the school – and yet whenever she sees Heather torment or shun someone for being different, she can’t help but think that she should be in the same boat. For the time being, however, her fear of Heather outweighs her desire to be herself, and so she stays. Aside from these traits, Emily is also terrible with technology – every last bit of it confuses her and she breaks nearly everything electronic she touches; she apparently believes texting to be a mystical, magical experience simply because she’s never been able to do it with any success. Biography Early Life Emily met Heather when they were young, at some sort of get-together based around the similar Asian heritage of the girls’ families. Heather quickly took the painfully shy, rather oddball girl under her wing, instructing her on how to be more “normal” and effectively turning Emily into her very first crony. Thus, Emily has hidden her various interests since elementary school, and has been Heather’s follower all this time. The two later befriended Daisy in middle school, at which point Emily, witnessing Heather’s constant mistreatment of their newfound friend, began to gain conflicted feelings about her “friendship” with Heather. Nevertheless, by this point she was thoroughly afraid of opposing her due to witnessing how Heather tormented outcasts much like her, and she would continue to act as her follower right up to the start of the series. LIFE AS AN EX-REALITY TV SHOW CONTESTANT Emily makes silent appearances in chapters one and two of EX, both times as a follower of Heather’s. Unlike Daisy, she does not introduce herself to Gwen or, in fact, say anything – her name is not learned until announced by the homeroom teacher. She later appears sitting with Heather at lunch, and she apparently watches the “milk incident” in silence. In chapter two, her most notable appearance is when Heather is talking to her and Daisy in homeroom; she is described as simply staring “sort of at Heather, sort of at the wall behind her”. Throughout the rest of the chapter, she is only seen following Heather around, and she does not appear in chapters three, four, or five. Other Appearances Emily was one of the competitors in the series Total Drama Fame. She arrived alongside Daisy and Heather, and silently handed her bags to Chris, giving him an unenthusiastic thumbs-up when he subsequently threw them across the dock and they slid to a stop at the perfect point for her to take a seat on top of them. She was assigned to the Killer Thespians, and unsurprisingly, decided to share an apartment with Heather and Daisy. During the challenge, she notably defied Heather by jumping out of the plane after she instructed Emily to tell Chris she wouldn’t jump; she ended up accidentally taking her friends with her when Heather grabbed her arm in an attempt to stop her from jumping, then grabbed Daisy by the ponytail when she was pulled out of the plane herself. Emily landed safely, but Heather and Daisy missed the target zone, and their team eventually lost. All three girls received golden records at the elimination ceremony, allowing them to move on in the competition. Relationships Friends and Classmates At the time the series begins, Emily is established to already be friends with Heather and fellow entourage member Daisy Fleur. However, Emily seems to be much more aware the false nature of Heather’s “friendship” and has more conflicted feelings about it than Daisy. Conversely, Daisy and Emily appear to be honest friends, and Emily appears to worry about Daisy being so willing to put up with Heather’s abuse. Antagonists Due to her association with Heather, Emily stands at odds with several individuals, among them Christin McClean, Hannah “Han” Lotta, Samantha Clover, Yoshi Genki, Lucas Cattivo, Andrea Libro, Gwen and LeShawna; she also likely is forced to oppose several of Heather’s other TDI foes. However, Emily herself has shown no personal vendettas against any of the above, and appears to particularly identify with Heather’s victims due to her own “outcast” nature. Gallery Trivia *Emily is of Chinese descent, and along with her “English” name – Emily Linghun, her surname being the Chinese word for “soul” – has the Chinese name “Mei Ling Hun”, with “Mei Ling” roughly translating to “Emily”. **This leads to a confusing translation between her English and Chinese names, due to the authoress giving her a name before she had any knowledge of Chinese. In reality, Emily’s surname should be simply “Hun”, and her given name “Mei Ling” (Emily), and it should be written “Hun Mei Ling”, as the Chinese give the surname before the given name. In its current form, “Ling Hun” is her given name, while “Mei” is the surname. In-universe, this mistake could be attributed to confused immigration officials who made the same mistake as the authoress when Emily’s ancestors came to Canada, believing “Ling Hun” to be the surname rather than given name. *Emily has never said a word in any of her appearances, due to her shyness. This may change due to a future chapter being planned to be from her perspective; however, even then she might only narrate, not speaking aloud. *Many parts of Emily’s profile, and in fact parts of her appearance, draw to mind the Azumanga Daioh character Sakaki – a girl with long, dark hair who is quiet and is thought to be “cool” and “cold” by other characters, but in reality is shy and emotional with a love for cute things, particularly cats. However, Emily was not actually based on Sakaki; rather, she was based on a real friend of the authoress’ who also bore many similarities to Sakaki. *In the first chapter of EX, Emily is described as wearing a blue tank top and sandals; in spite of this, she has always been drawn with her long-sleeved blue shirt and dark brown ballet flats. *Emily’s hair became much thinner and straighter in her new image, simply because the authoress always imagined her hair as such and only gained the ability to accurately draw thin, straight hair after Emily’s original image was drawn. *Interestingly, comparisons can be drawn between the Heather-Daisy-Emily friendship and those of Princess Azula, Ty Lee and Mai in the series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Emily fills the role of Mai, who is more distant than her companion Ty Lee, appears somewhat more resistant to Azula’s plots, and is ultimately the first to rebel against her. These parallels were unintentional, but due to the authoress’ love of the series, it probably unconsciously inspired the similar group dynamics.